Visitors look at an electric car with a grass shell during the Hannover Industrial Exposition in Hannover, Germany, on April 8, 2013. (Xinhua/Ma Ning)

BERLIN, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel Wednesday reaffirmed the goal of 1 million electric cars running on German roads by 2020.

"I have not pulled it back. I said that we have to do more, otherwise we would not be able to make it," Merkel said when she was asked whether she had given up the target during an interview with netizens on the YouTube.

Merkel said in May that "as it looks at the moment, we will not achieve that goal," a statement interpreted as a sign that the chancellor had already given up the goal.

In addition to her reaffirmation, Merkel in the interview called for an expansion of the infrastructure for electric cars, such an increase in loading sites and more charging stations in car parking houses and streets.

The spokesman of German federal government Steffen Seibert reacted later to Merkel's statement, saying that a very rapid rise in the number is possible in the field of new technologies.

At the moment, less than 100,000 electric cars are running on German roads.